Your Responsibilities and Optimizing ads

How do I change and optimize my ads?

As a general rule, your Finch client success manager will help with improving ads; however, we don't specialize in ad copy AB testing at this time. We do want to assist and make sure hte ad copy is performing well. Because of our 'single keyword ad groups' the optimization process is easy, but a bit different than a standard ad group.

The important thing is to always work on the ads that have the most impact on your results. Finch uses a highly granular ad group structure that may at first look like it makes it difficult to manage ad copy. For global changes to ads, you can use AdWords Editor, or you can email the changes you want to Finch, and we will make the changes.

Optimizing the click through rate (CTR) for the ads in a campaign is best done with the following methodology in Google AdWords:

Click on the campaign you want to work on, then select the Ads tab, and set the data range to Last 30 days.

Click on the Impressions header to sort your ads to put the ads with the most impressions on top.

Among the top 25 ads, look for those with the lowest click through rate (CTR), click on the Ad Group link, pause the least performing ads, and add new ones.

Keep track of the ads you are changing (xls) and check next week for improvement (learning).

Every week do this same drill, and you will have a rapidly increasing CTR where it matters the most -- from the keywords with the most traffic/impressions.

What is the best practice for writing ad copy?

You want your ad copy to get clicks that convert. Writing your ad so that it stands out from other ads on the search results page is the most critical task. And when your ad is relevant to the search term, this increases the probability that the click will convert, which helps both your cost and volume.

Four lines are available for your ad, and the best practice for each of the lines are as follows:

Dynamic {search term} insertion, combined with text

Benefits of buying from you and/or a snippet of what makes you different from others

Call to action (why buy now; discount, shipping, service, etc.)

URL

When you write your ad copy internally, it may be your most effective instant market research tool. By changing what you offer as benefits, describing what makes you different, and supplying a “call to action,” in a few days you will learn how your target market is responding to the message you sent with your ad. When your ad has a good response, you should use that information in all of your other online promotions since it has proven to be successful.

When you pay attention to ad granularity and carefully select which ads to modify with the best practices described here (combined with following the instructions in the “How do I change and optimize my ads?" FAQ topic), you can, in most cases, dramatically improve your CTR and Quality score.

How can I get longer headlines for my ads to improve CTR?

Longer headlines have proven to increase Click-Through-Rate (CTR).

For some ads, Google moves description line 1 to the headline and separates them with a hyphen. This creates longer headlines and a better experience for users, because more information is highlighted in the ad.

To improve your chance to have longer headlines:

Make sure each description line of your ad appears to be a distinct sentence.

Make sure each description line of your ad ends in proper punctuation (a period or a questions mark).Note that punctuation varies by country.

Are sitelinks beneficial?

Sitelinks are shortcuts to different pages on your website that appear below your ad. They allow you to show links to pages on your website in addition to your main landing page. Learn more in Google AdWords help article, Show your website links below your ad text.

How do I add customer reviews to my AdWords account?

Google Shopping seller ratings are made up of combined customer reviews from third-party sites and from Google Checkout. Seller ratings are beneficial because they let Google users know about advertisers who are rated well by their customers.

How do I add a new ad to all or some of my ad groups?

Finch campaign structure provides a lot of power for optimizing your ad copy. You have a lot of control with the ability to increase your click through rate (CTR) and quality score for all of your keywords. This added power means there is some extra work to do to manage ads with Finch, but AdWords Editor provides an easy way to manage your ads.

When Finch manages my campaigns, what is left for me to do?

We like to think we're building a partnership. We know how to drive performance on AdWords. You know your business best. We work together on improving ad copy and tightening campaign relevancy with negative keyword insertion. Additionally, we provide consulting and testing for landing page optimization, but typically need to work with someone on your team to implement changes.